My Fear Of Spiders Has Made Me Completely Embarrassing

There are a lot of ways I embarrass myself on a daily basis – falling, crying in public, saying awkward things – but I think some of my worst embarrassing moments have happened due to my fear of spiders. I know that everyone says this, but guys, seriously: I’m really afraid of spiders.

This fear is nothing to joke about. When I say I’m afraid of spiders, I don’t just mean that they gross me out and I don’t really want to get close enough to one to kill them. No, I mean that spiders literally give me major anxiety, even enough for a panic attack or two. I’m not just afraid of spiders – I am genuinely terrified of them. From the way I feel about them, you would think they’re giant monsters taking over the world (actually, don’t even joke about that).

How often have I made a complete fool out of myself thanks to creepy, crawly spiders? Um, I lost count when I was, like, 11-years-old. It’s bad. My friends and family pretty much hate me for it. In my defense, I can’t always be held accountable for my actions. Most people don’t understand the anxiety spiders give me – they think my fear is more about dramatics. It’s hard to explain that knowing a spider is near me makes it difficult for me to breathe or think in a rational way. I literally have no control over myself. I’m giving you a rundown of my worst moments in the hope that I realize I am not alone.

One of the first times I hung out with my boyfriend, I spotted a spider on his ceiling while we were making out. (Side note, I have a sense about spiders. I ALWAYS know when they’re around. It’s terrible.) For 1.5 seconds, I contemplated attempting to be cool about it since I was still in that stage of trying to impress him. Then the spider moved closer and I decided, nope, being single isn’t so bad. I literally pushed him off of me, rolled/fell off the bed half-naked and started crawling towards the door, shrieking “Spider! SPIDER!” I might have started crying. After he killed it, things were weird, as he tried to decide whether or not I was clinically insane.

There are two times I can remember that I’ve managed to get my normally calm best friend seriously mad at me. One time, I was innocently driving home at around 2 in the morning when, BOOM, a freakin’ spider fell from the ceiling right in front of my face. I swerved my car to the side of the road, screamed my head off, jumped out of the car and danced around shaking my head and freaking out. When I looked in the car, it was crawling across the dashboard. I was in a terrible neighborhood but couldn’t imagine getting back in my car – so I called my best friend.

She trekked out into the freezing cold night to find me standing outside of my car considering whether I would rather be in the car with a spider or get mugged (getting mugged didn’t seem so bad). When she couldn’t find the spider, I made her drive my car back to my house so I could drive hers so I didn’t have to get in my car. She did it, vowed to make fun of me for the rest of my life, but on the plus side, won Best Friend Of The Year.

Another time, we were in the middle of a long car ride when I spotted a spider crawling towards me faster than anything I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even know how to handle myself as it came closer, so I started hyperventilating and moving away until I literally was sitting on her lap… while she was driving. She screamed, “Jessica, GET OFF OF ME, you’re insane” and pulled over to yell at me. I deserved it, I almost killed us all. She barely spoke to me all weekend.

On a more serious note, I once had a legitimate panic attack thanks to a spider. I was home alone when I saw a huge, fuzzy black spider making it’s way across my bedroom ceiling. I ran out of the room screaming for help until I realized there was no one. I called my mom at work, hysterical. She tried to calm me down, but nothing was working. I have literally never felt so panicky in my life. I finally called my brother and begged him to come home from work to kill the spider for me. Once he got home, he found me crawled up in a ball downstairs, crying and shaking. It was so bad, he couldn’t even make fun of me. That’s a big deal for my brother.

Then there was that time I embarrassed myself in front of my entire homeroom class. In high school, there was this guy we’ll call O who thought my fear of spiders was hilarious. He tortured me constantly and loved to make me look like an idiot. One day, he put a very realistic looking fake spider in my desk. I sat down, opened it, saw the spider and all hell broke loose. I didn’t know it was fake, screamed like I was being murdered, everyone stared at me then started laughing, I immediately started crying and then I ran out of the school and went home for the day.

The weirdest part of that story? A few years later, O got in touch with me through Facebook saying he wanted to take me out. I still sort of hated him for the infamous spider incident but hesitantly agreed. O acted like a perfect gentlemen, and at the end of the night, he told me he had to take me out because, even years later, he still felt horrible about the spider prank. I guess it was kind of sweet.

I could go on for hours telling you about my embarrassing spider stories, but I won’t. I’m sort of getting creeped out – I keep looking around making sure there aren’t any watching me. I wish I could say my fear is getting better… but it’s totally not. So I want to know: have you ever done anything similar thanks to your fear?

What are you afraid of? Are you terrified of spiders also? Has your fear ever totally embarrassed you? Do you have some crazy stories? Tell me in the comments!

this week my fake ponytail fell out in class and people were laughing at me so I was crying about it.then this week a boy I thought was cute was the one to tell me I was bleeding through my pants. but I’ve found out you have o laugh it out and it’s better to just address it instead of hide it.

blu

a few weeks ago i was riding in the car with my family when all a sudden something bites me! i dont know why but the first thing my brain concludes is that what bit me was a freak-en spider. the next thing i know i am crying on my little brothers shoulder (who is sitting to my right)and he is freaking out not knowing why i am crying and wondering what to do with me. he isn’t really good at dealing with crying girls! so i start freaking out and my other brother is yelling at mom and dad. we went crazy. afterwards when everthing calms down they laghed the only one who was on my side was my small two year old sister. all she said was “bite”.

Michele Novoa

I’m home alone and I saw this spider on the wall by the front door and my mom won’t be home in the next 7 hours, eventually it crawled down to the floor and that’s when I lost it and shut myself in my room. I haven’t eaten anything and I’m housebound because I’m sick but it could have gone into the kitchen and I can’t leave my room and go were it might be and I don’t have food with me, so my mom works an hour away and she said she would come home early so basically I just made my mom leave work an hour away to kill a spider for me and she’s going to be furious for years but I honestly don’t even care.

DatOtherGuy

I have fear of bees (melissophobia) and even looking at pictures of bees makes me shiver.

B

I forgot to mention i wake up atleast once or twice a month screaming theres a spider on me a d rip off my clothes in panic and then i have to inspect and bc im sooo tired i tell myself i could never have seen a spider while i was sleeping. Ughhhh i hope it doesnt happen tonight. Fml

B

Ive had it just as bad and worse. Ive had that exact car situation happen. Im actually fighting with my bf right now bc i saw a spider and screamed n the only spray we have is lemon pledge and i sprayed the whole room in desperation to get some sleep. He doesnt get it. Im sleeping in long pants and a hoodie bc im so freaked out. I dont want to turn thr light off and hes mad. I lit. Look at my ceiling like 3 times before shutting off the lights every night. My dad made me a spider vacum lol. But im too scared to use it. Its a horrible horrible fear and you hit it dead on…i lit. Can sense them! Its bizzar idk what that means…im so tired of this fear taking over me. Ughh this forum has helped. Its nice to know there are others like me. What do we do!???

I know this is an old post and I’m by a regular on this site but I just wanted to comment anyway because I just kind of wanted to vent, basically I’ve always had this fear of spiders recently it’s either gotten worse or I’ve just seen spiders more often anyway idk why but I just hate them. I hate the way they walk and I know they are harmless but there legs are so eww like that sounds weird but it just scares me.

So the most embarressing incident I’ve been in recently was with my friend and her cousin (my ex but were still good friends but we’ve dated a few times) anyway it looked up and saw this spider it was a big daddy long legs and i didn’t want to make a big deal, it wasnt moving but I pointed it out and he is scared of spiders and she sort of is so we were all freaking out then it started moving. I was going to open the blinds so my friend could put it out the window and the blind touched my head, suddenly I screamed and fell onto the bed had this major panic attack and started crying because I thought this giant spider had just fell on my head, I was still pretty shaken up about it 15 minutes later. I was really embarressed and at the time it was so scary but I was physically frightened idk why but it was horrible but it wasn’t even the spider. In the end she put it out the bathroom window sorry for going on.

My next story was 15 minutes ago this massive like 3 inch spider with black legs crawled across our fireplace and behind this table. I pointed and started crying and I couldn’t speak I just said spider and I felt it crawling on me but it wasn’t, my mum said she wouldn’t get it and I was over exaggerating because she didn’t want to pull the table out to et the spider, I was screaming and crying and 5 minutes later I think I saw it crawling across the floor the other side of the room my nan put a cup over it and vacuumed/hoovered it up anyway 10 minutes later still crying I finally lied down but I pulled my sleeves down because I thought it was on me now I’m convinced there are more spiders but I am finally calming down.

There are many more spider horror story’s but I can honestly say I am so petrified of them I have never been tested for arachnophobia but I have been depressed (fine now) and have a little anxiety but idk why I’m writing this so yeah gonna end this now but the weird thing is I kind of hate ladybirds and locust aswell they are kinda like spiders I also hate crickets idk if it’s a bug thing or not but I really f***in hate it

Kym

I have a massive fear like you. I go into hyperventaliation and cry and stuff, You sound like spiders seems to follow you around SPIDER MAGNET!! my stoires

1. my sister thinks it hilaours that I have such a fear of spiders and has tourtred me for years but now that I have anixety and depression it gets worse. One day I was in a shop with my mum sister and aunty when my mum thought it would be funny to throw a MASSIVE fake spider on me. I twisted my neck and screamed like a banshie!!!! i cried so much and hated my mum.
2. My stupid sister brought a fake massive spider and puts fishing line on it and drags it around the house while I am like dying.
3. One was in my room on the room, I screamed and yelled at mum to kill it. It was a big black spider. she missed and it fell on my bed a centermeter away from my face, the next thing I knew I was out of the house and halfway down my 1 kilometer st.
screaming!!
I live in Australia so Spiders here are MASSIVE and there are A LOT of them.
When my friend from Germany stayed over and we went to my Gran and Pops house. there was another massive spider in the room. we had the door shut and it was on the doorknob! I nearly died!!
I hate spiders so much. I dont know why. maybe from my sister always throwing things at me and yeling SPIDER its horible and I wish they would all die!!!!!!
Did you hear about a movie called “big ass spider!” its a spider that grows and takes over the world. my friends want me to watch it but I would rather have a snake bite.
At the bus stop this morning there was one in a bush next to me. I have never wanted a bus to come fast in my life!!!
I hope you get better and Spiders leave you alone!!

Mel

I feel the same way, exactly. What bothers me most is that people just don’t understand. They think it’s funny, and will tease me about it or make light of it. Worst yet, they will talk about spiders in front of me or bring spiders to me for a laugh. People don’t get that it causes me actual panic attacks. It’s not a funny joke. It’s serious and I don’t appreciate people treating it lightly.